No, I totally agree with you on all those points –– and they definitely highlight the value of PDF as a format.
My quarrel is with misapplications of PDF as a way of presenting regular old page content that would probably never get printed, stuff such as lists of contacts, FAQs, blog posts, etc.
I work with folks across a university who know how to make a PDF and embed a hyperlink into a page...and that's all they can do. Their content might be better off as a regular page, but it's a PDF because that's how they learned to upload content to a website in the absence of a CMS. I know, it's weird, but that's what I see on a day-to-day basis.
My quarrel is with misapplications of PDF as a way of presenting regular old page content that would probably never get printed, stuff such as lists of contacts, FAQs, blog posts, etc.
I work with folks across a university who know how to make a PDF and embed a hyperlink into a page...and that's all they can do. Their content might be better off as a regular page, but it's a PDF because that's how they learned to upload content to a website in the absence of a CMS. I know, it's weird, but that's what I see on a day-to-day basis.